Some parts of caregiving are easy to talk about. Others are messy, lonely, heartbreaking, funny at completely inappropriate times, and much harder to admit.

This week on Mind What Matters, Nikki DeLoach turns the questions toward Elizabeth Humphreys for a conversation about Liz's book, Too Bad About That, and the 13-year journey with her mother that inspired it.

Liz shares where the book's title came from and why she wanted to tell a story about Alzheimer's that didn't leave out the darker parts: anticipatory grief, family fractures, resentment, guilt, loneliness, impossible decisions, and the moments of absurdity that somehow exist alongside all of it.

But as Nikki reflects on Liz's story, another thread emerges. This is also a story about learning to let other people in. They talk about the communities of women who taught Liz what it meant to show up for someone, the years she spent believing she had to handle hard things on her own, and the people who eventually gave her a safe place to fall apart.

They also revisit some of the most painful moments of caring for Liz's mom, including what happens when the people making decisions about someone you love don't see what you're seeing. For Liz, learning to trust her own knowledge of her mother became one of the most important lessons of the entire experience.

Because caregiving doesn't come with a neat ending, and neither does grief. Sometimes surviving it means trusting what you know, finding people willing to sit beside you in the hardest moments, and allowing love to be a lot less polished than we imagine it should be.

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Mind What Matters is produced by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.